On the face of it, that question is a no-brainer: It's Hendrix. Or Clapton. Or Page. Or Beck. Or ... is it?

In 2010, as Guitar World was celebrating its 30th anniversary, we picked 30 guitarists and asked them to name their guitar heroes — and the results will surprise you.

ANGUS YOUNG by Joe Perry

Apart from the usual suspects—Page, Clapton, Beck, Hendrix and Peter Green—one of my favorite guitarists is Angus Young. I first saw him when AC/DC opened up for Aerosmith in the Seventies.

They played about 25 dates with us, and I was just overwhelmed by his energy and ability to do his acrobatics without missing a note. He definitely had an influence on me inasmuch as his solos always had a purpose. Instead of using all the traditional tricks, he found a way to get inside those licks and be inventive. My favorite AC/DC song is probably “Sin City.”

For me, the essence of a good guitarist is someone who plays what the song calls for. It’s about listening to the music as a whole and then doing what you need to do. Sometimes it’s not even what you play; it’s what you don’t play. Which brings us back to Angus Young.

CHUCK BERRY by Angus Young

When I was growing up, everyone used to rave about Clapton, saying he was a guitar genius and stuff like that. Well, even on a bad night, Chuck Berry is a lot better than Clapton will ever be.

Rock music has been around since the days when Chuck Berry put it all together. He combined the blues, country and rockabilly, and put his own poetry on top, and that became rock and roll. And it’s been hanging in there.

AC/DC’s whole career has been playing rock and roll, and I’m sure you still get a lot of people tuning in to bands like us and the Stones. Younger bands will be plugging into it and taking it into the next realm. There’s always going to be another generation that will take it and give it to a new, younger audience, so I think it will just keep going on.

STEVE VAI by Tom Morello

Some instrumental guitar players are lost in a muso fog. Steve Vai is not one of them. He’s an artist, and one of the greats.

I’ve certainly learned from him, especially from his work ethic. I started playing guitar very late, when I was 17 years old. I felt really behind, and when I read about Steve’s practice regimen it really encouraged me. It also nearly killed me! While doing my college studies I was also practicing eight hours a day to amass the kind of technique that I admired in players like him and Randy Rhoads.

Once, Steve was doing a presentation at GIT, and he asked me to do it with him. He told me he’d also invited Steve Lukather, Stanley Jordan, Joe Satriani. I said, “No, bro, it sounds like it’s gonna be a shred-off.” But he said, “We’re not even gonna play; we’re just gonna discuss our craft.” So I said, “Okay, I’ll do it.”

A couple of days before the event, he says to me, “Just bring your amp and guitar along in case we have to demonstrate techniques.” So of course, I get there for soundcheck, and my worst nightmare has come true: it was six of us in a row with our guitars, and it was nonstop shredding the whole time.

Comments

Pretty good article, but I thought it was a bit strange that some of the guitarists interviewed didn't choose the guitarist they thought was the greatest of all time, but rather chose a guitarist they thought was underrated. That's not to say those they chose aren't great guitarists in their own right, but not necessarily one of the greatest of all time. That said, choosing the greatest guitarist of all time is subjective to the chooser. Not everyone is going to like the guitarist chosen. One commenter mentioned Allan Holdsworth. I'm not into fusion, though I've heard a song or two of his, so I cannot say he's the greatest guitarist ever, simply because I'm not familiar enough with his music. But he could be. I could say that about a lot of guitarists. The guitarists I think are underrated, greatest of all time and my favorite are mostly limited to those with whom I am most familiar, but I know there are plenty of others who are also worthy of those distinctions.

By the way, this article inspired me to create my own lists of guitarists: http://wp.me/p42SZ3-Hg

My God, Eddie's such a prick that he can't even give a guy a compliment without kissing his own ass. If you guys had a "Biggest A**hole in Rock" contest, it'd be a toss up between Gene Simmons and EVH. The rest of the articles are great though. Humility, someone please explain this concept to Eddie...

Way to go SLASH. The Best choice from his generation MICK TAYLOR.
I was beginning to think no one ever heard of him. Helluva slide player. He made it possible for the Stones to go on as long as they have. Piss off to everyone who disagrees. Too bad instead of continuing to better the band they rested on there hits which they don't even play as good as they did when Richards was still a junkie.
All of the so called new songs post Taylor, "Waitin on a Friend", "Start Me Up" & a few other gems were taken from the Master tapes of the Exile on Main Street Master Tapes.

Not only that but the old bastards joined with the rest of the old greedy ass baby boomers & jacked up the prices for the Elite friends of "Sir" Mick. Keith doesn't get off either, all of the shit he stole from the old black guys he goes & sues some band in the 80's for lifting a loop or whatever the rappers called it & kills their career on what they called a homage to him from Satisfaction I think. I think he knicked that from Ian Stewart intro to "Flight 505".

If what I have recently read on Mick Taylor and the Stones is true, well lets just say if I was the Stones, I couldn't look at myself in the mirror while shaving.
No one came out and said it but the gist of it is, Keith Richards was so jealous of Mick Taylor it is pathetic. Not only could Mick Taylor play better than Keith Richards he was better looking, which must have really pissed Keith Richards off.
From Keith Richards erasing demo tapes of Mick Taylor's studio work and The Stones failure to give Taylor writing credits on all the work Taylor did for them, I'm surprised he has agreed to play with them (still) all these years.
Must be a better man than I am as I would spit in their collective faces.

I'll bet if they had asked Guthrie Govan, he would've said Shawn Lane. Buckethead probably would have too. Anybody think the one from Tom Morello (on Steve Vai) ends really odd, where he says it turned into his greatest nightmare, a shred-fest? I'm like "Eh? What was the point of that story?" He never really talks about Steve Vai himself. Weird.

Ahh. I am mostly a continuing story of hair band forever guitarist. Ive played the BEATLES for 20yrs and this year resorted mostly to pop no less. I did go on a "Kill em All" phase in'88 but always and forever a long lost RATT. I have to comend Kirk Hamment for a most interesting column on Uli Roth. "Sails of Sharon" is mostly a wicked ritual to celebrate for me, and I admire Matthias Jabbs! Way cool comments and a new heightend respect to Kirk Hamment.

Gawd I'm so fed up with this line: "It was very apparent to me that his tone is in his fingers and his head." Of course it is; it's so bloody obvious why does every guitarist feel the need to make himself sound brilliant by saying it?

So many people say "tone is in your fingers", but I challenge that statement. Your style is in your fingers, your tone is in your gear.

Does anyone think Johnny Winter's tone sounds the same playing through his Lazer as when he played through a Firebird? Or, does Leslie West sound the same playing through his Deans & Blackstars as when he played a Junior through a Sun Coliseum PA head? Clapton sound the same now playing through Fender guitars and amps as when he played a Les Paul through a Marshall? How about the late, great Roy Buchanan? His tone suffered the most when he stopped playing his iconic Tele through a Fender, and opted instead for a plethora of other guitars through a delay pedal into a Roland Jazz Chorus amp. I could go on.

It's a romantic notion that a great guitarist, no matter who he or she may be, can play a Gibson/Marshall or a Fender/Fender or a Rickenbacker/Vox setup and the tone will be the same throughout, just because of said guitarist's "mojo". What will be recognizable is the guitarist's style, not the tone.

Heck, even Hendrix sounded a little bit different when he played his Flying V instead of his Strat.

What I want to listen to is a "musician". Not an instrument technician. No matter what instrument you play you must be musical. You must make music. Sounds obvious right? But far too many guitarists don't get it.

many of the those guitarist are somewhat contemporary artists, i imagine the artists that choose the artists that they did had more to do with being influenced by the subject artist. Nothing to take away from the guitarist that you stated because they are all amazing players.